Sunday, February 17, 2013

Led Up By the Spirit

Never forget, first and foremost Jesus ministry is a ministry-- that is, service—of spiritual warfare. Jesus primary purpose is to defeat the evil one and the sin and death he introduced into the world by his temptation of the first Adam, as we heard in our OT lesson this morning.

And neither let us not forget how that evil one worked. He was crafty. The original Hebrew word might be better understood by that outdated English word, "beguiling." Temptation cloaks deceit in beauty—appealing to the senses and desires of eyes, ears, and hearts not turned to God and His Word. But rather turned inward to what we think is God talking and what we want to hear.

So Jesus is led, even driven out into the wilderness to do spiritual battle with the evil one and fulfill His Father's promise to Adam and Eve to bruise, even crush the head of that evil tempter.

Decision Theology

Contributors

Wisdom for Church & State

"One Word of God is all and all are one, one doctrine is all doctrines and all are one, so that when one is lost all are eventually lost, because they all belong together and are held together by a common bond." – Dr. Martin Luther

"Nevertheless we consider it our duty to criticize, refute, oppose, contend against, and reprove whatever error becomes manifest in the teaching of those who wish to be our brethren, whether this error pertains to a fundamental or a non-fundamental teaching of the Word of God……" -– C. F. W. Walther

"Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." –- George Washington

"Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality’’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they’’re sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive." —— Ronald Reagan

"Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born." -- Ronald Reagan